Lucky for us, Utah’s long awaited pattern change started to kick in a week before our trip. 18 to 20 inches of snow fell across the Cottonwoods the week before our arrival with predictions of significantly more.
We spent our first 2 days skiing Solitude, where we had rented a condo for the week. No new snow, but decent packed powder conditions under sunny skies the first day. We even found some untracked powder in Honeycomb Canyon. By the second day the snow had gotten a bit firmer and slicker and you noticed the thin base. Between the gray sky and ho-hum conditions it was pretty obvious Beth would much rather have been somewhere in the Caribbean. Sometime around last chair the first couple flakes began to fall, and by nightfall it was really dumping. We woke up to more than a foot the next morning, with a storm total of 18 – 20 by the time the storm wound down. We got another foot plus over the next few days, but that Sunday night storm really salvaged our trip.
We skied Monday at Brighton (right next door to Solitude), the next 3 days at Alta and Snowbird, and wrapped up our week with one more day at Solitude. A few observations:
We were surprised how much we liked Brighton. Awesome tree skiing everywhere and a cool local vibe. Lots of snowboarders (which is OK by us). We found untracked lines in the trees all day long.
Snowbird was probably our favorite area. Mineral Basin was awesome, Beth really loved Regulator Johnson (billed as one of the steepest groomed runs in North America), and Daniel and I had some awesome hike-to runs out the High Baldy Traverse. We would have liked to get in one more day at the Bird, but the timing of the storms made driving down the Big Cottonwood Canyon road and up the Little Cottonwood Canyon road difficult.
Our days at Alta were really great too. Catherine’s area off the Supreme chair was a favorite. We also really liked the runs we did off the High Traverse and everything over on Wildcat.
Last day at Solitude
In the future I’d probably look to stay down in Sandy rather than up at Solitude. The drive down BCC and up LCC to get to Alta and Snowbird from Solitude can get long. Dining options at Solitude are pretty much limited to the Honeycomb Grill and the Silver Fork Lodge (about a mile down the road). Both are very good, but there’s not much else. Utah’s overbearing liquor laws can be a bit of a drag. All draft beer is 3.2%. Can’t have anyone under 21 in a “tavern.” We’ve had our kids along for après ski in plenty of East coast “bars”… I guess I must be a bad parent.
For sure we’ll make another visit to the Cottonwoods for more of the Greatest Snow on Earth. Hopefully next time we won’t be biting our nails for enough snow.
Link to Flickr album: Utah, Feb 2018
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